European Seniors Tour

Contents

The European Seniors Tour is a professional tour for male golfers aged 50 and over run by the PGA European Tour.

The Tour was founded in 1992. In 2008 it had a total prize fund of €7,729,284, so it is much further behind the U.S.-based Champions Tour in relative prize money than the main European Tour is behind the PGA Tour. The highest profile seniors event in Europe is the Senior British Open Championship, which is co-sanctioned by the Champions Tour. The European Tour co-sanctions the Senior PGA Championship and the U.S. Senior Open. Prize money in latter does not count towards the Order of Merit, but from 2007 the former is an official money event.[1]

The 2010 season featured new events in Mauritius, Thailand, South Africa, England, the Netherlands, and France.

Schedule

The table below shows the initial 2011 schedule. The season starts with three events in late 2010. The numbers in brackets after the winners' names show the number of career wins they had on the European Seniors Tour up to and including that event. This is only shown for players who are members of the tour.

Date Tournament Host country Winner Notes
19–21 Nov Handa Australian Senior Open Australia Peter Senior (1) New tournament
25–28 Nov Handa Cup Senior Masters Japan Masahiro Kuramoto (1) New tournament
10–12 Dec Mauritius Commercial Bank Open Mauritius David Frost (1)
4–6 Mar Aberdeen Brunei Senior Masters Brunei Chris Williams (1)
11–13 Mar ISPS Handa Senior World Championship China Sandy Lyle (1) New tournament
18–20 May OKI Open de Espana Senior Spain Carl Mason (24) New tournament
24–29 May U.S. Senior PGA Championship United States Tom Watson (n/a) Champions Tour major
3–5 Jun ISPS Handa Senior Masters England Peter Fowler (1)
9–12 Jun De Vere Club PGA Seniors Championship England Andrew Oldcorn (1)
17–19 Jun Berenberg Bank Masters Germany Ian Woosnam (4)
24–26 Jun Van Lanschot Senior Open Netherlands Des Smyth (4)
1–3 Jul Bad Ragaz PGA Seniors Open Switzerland Peter Fowler (2)
21–24 Jul Senior British Open Championship England Russ Cochran (n/a) Champions Tour major
28–31 Jul U.S. Senior Open United States Olin Browne (n/a) Champions Tour major.
Unofficial money on the EST
19–21 Aug Cleveland Golf/Srixon Scottish Senior Open Scotland Barry Lane (2)
2–4 Sep Travis Perkins plc Senior Masters England Boonchu Ruangkit (5)
16–18 Sep Casa Serena Open Czech Republic Barry Lane (3)
22–24 Sep Cannes Mougins Masters France Juan Quirós (4)
29 Sep - 1 Oct Belas Clube de Campo Senior Open de Portugal Portugal Mark Mouland (1) New tournament
14–16 Oct Benahavis Senior Masters Spain Carl Mason (25)
18–20 Nov Fubon Senior Open Taiwan Lu Chien-soon (1)
9–11 Dec MCB Tour Championship Mauritius Tom Lehman (n/a)

For the latest version of the tour schedule on the European Tour's website, including links to full results, click here.

Past tour schedules

The table below summarises the development of the tour since 1999, which was the year that the euro became the currency of record for the tour. Individual tournaments have purses fixed in a mixture of British pounds, euros and U.S. dollars, so year on year changes in the total prize fund reflect exchange rate fluctuations as well as prize fund movements in constant currencies.

Year Ranking tournaments Total purse (€)
2010 21 9,043,584
2009 16 7,045,769
2008 18 7,729,284
2007 19 8,305,947
2006 17 6,346,453
2005 21 7,019,820
2004 20 6,340,626
2003 20 6,041,828
2002 19 5,497,811
2001 20 6,539,844
2000 20 4,714,254
1999 17 3,266,041

Order of Merit winners

Year Order of Merit leader Country Earnings ()
2011 Peter Fowler  Australia 302,327
2010 Boonchu Ruangkit  Thailand 266,609
2009 Sam Torrance  Scotland 170,696
2008 Ian Woosnam  Wales 320,120
2007 Carl Mason  England 412,376
2006 Sam Torrance  Scotland 347,525
2005 Sam Torrance  Scotland 277,421
2004 Carl Mason  England 354,743
2003 Carl Mason  England 350,242
2002 Seiji Ebihara  Japan 330,211
2001 Ian Stanley  Australia 287,025
2000 Noel Ratcliffe  Australia 163,167
1999 Tommy Horton  England 138,944
1998 Tommy Horton  England 127,656
1997 Tommy Horton  England 158,427
1996 Tommy Horton  England 133,195
1995 Brian Barnes  Scotland 63,620
1994 John Morgan  England 57,209
1993 Tommy Horton  England 56,935
1992 John Fourie  South Africa 47,857

Leading career money winners

The table below shows the top ten career money leaders on the European Seniors Tour as of the end of the 2011 season.

Rank Player Country Earnings ()
1 Carl Mason  England 2,283,462
2 Tommy Horton  England 1,527,506
3 Nick Job  England 1,477,881
4 Sam Torrance  Scotland 1,467,152
5 Noel Ratcliffe  Australia 1,356,875
6 Bill Longmuir  Scotland 1,268,452
7 Jerry Bruner  United States 1,256,866
8 Tom Watson  United States 1,251,116
9 Denis O'Sullivan  Ireland 1,237,342
10 Jim Rhodes  England 1,194,766

There is a full list that is updated after each tournament on the European Tour's website here.

See also

References

External links